Canadian and Australian citizens named as suspects in terror attack which killed 6; suspects thought to be in Lebanon.

BERLIN – Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry released on Thursday the names and
photographs of two people believed to have carried out the Burgas bus bomb
terrorist attack last year that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus
driver.

The powerful explosion at the Black Sea resort town wounded 32
Israelis.

The two suspects behind the deadly attack were identified as
32-year-old Australian citizen Meliad Farah, also known as Hussein Hussein, and
25-year-old Canadian citizen Hassan el-Hajj Hassan.

In the days around
the attack, the suspects had been noticed in Ruse, Varna and Nesebar, the Sunny
Beach resort, and the village of Ravda, according to the ministry
statement.

The alleged Hezbollah suspects are believed to be in Lebanon.
In addition to their Canadian and Australian citizenships, Hassan and Farah are
citizens of Lebanon.

A Bulgarian source familiar with extradition cases
between Lebanon and Bulgaria told The Jerusalem Post that the Lebanese
authorities have a lousy record in deporting wanted individuals to the Eastern
European country.

The Lebanese government has refused to cooperate with a
UN tribunal indictment seeking Hezbollah operatives charged with killing former
Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others in 2005. Hezbollah plays a
central role in the Lebanese coalition governments and the country’s
parliament.

The Bulgarian authorities were asking the public for
cooperation and suspect that the two men registered at hotels and rented cars in
the area near Burgas under false names.

Last July, according to the
ministry, ”it was established that Farah rented a Renault Clio in the village of
Ravda.”

Farah sports a beard and has dark hair with thick black eyebrows
and brown-colored eyes. His alleged accomplice – the 25-year-old Hassan – has a
lighter skin complexion and a wears a goatee. His head is nearly shaven
bald.

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said last week that
his country has received additional evidence implicating Hezbollah in the Burgas
bombing.

Fueled by concerns over Hezbollah’s activities in Europe,
European Union governments – in a reversal of past policy – agreed Monday to put
the Lebanese organization’s armed wing on the EU terrorism blacklist.

The
EU wrote it will review its proscription of Hezbollah’s military wing as a
terrorist organization on a six-monthly basis.

Britain and the
Netherlands had pressed EU peers since May to put the group’s military wing on
the bloc’s terrorism list, citing evidence it was behind the bus
bombing.